Belfast Belfast Agenda
Core idea
Inclusive growth, waterfront
Why it matters
Post-conflict regeneration strategy
Description
The Belfast Agenda, adopted by Belfast City Council from 2017, is the city's first statutory community plan, setting a shared framework to around 2035 for inclusive growth, employment, housing and neighbourhood regeneration. It links social and economic ambitions with physical projects, including continued regeneration of the waterfront and city-centre living initiatives, and is delivered through partnership between the council, public agencies and communities. The plan operates alongside the city's development plan as the strategic expression of post-devolution municipal ambition.
Significance
The Agenda is significant as a post-conflict regeneration strategy, using inclusive growth and shared civic space to consolidate peace-building in a city long divided along sectarian lines. It illustrates the turn in United Kingdom planning towards community planning duties, and Belfast's waterfront and Titanic Quarter renewal has become a reference for post-industrial repositioning in mid-sized cities.
What shaped it
- Urban resilience (2013)
- The Just City (Fainstein) (2010)
- SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities (2015)
Sources
- https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/community/community-planning/belfast-agenda
- https://smartbelfast.city/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Belfast-Agenda-3.9MB-PDF.pdf